NYPD officer fatally shoots armed man

NEW YORK- Police said they shot and killed an armed man who ran from uniformed officers and tussled with them in a building lobby, though a witness said the suspect was handing over his gun.

It was the city's first fatal police shooting since officers killed an unarmed man on his wedding day last month in a barrage of 50 bullets.

The man killed Wednesday, Timur Person, was standing with a group of men who ran when four officers in a marked vehicle approached around 8 p.m., police said. Officers chased him into the vestibule, where he was shot, police said.

Police said Person, 19, was carrying a semiautomatic gun but did not fire it. They were investigating.

Witness Hector Suarez said he heard police tell Person to let go of his weapon, and Person responded, "I'm giving you the gun," before he was shot.

Witnesses reported that at least one officer shot Person at close range.

"He stood over his head and he just looked down at him and he just shot four times, one, two, three, four," Suarez said.

Person was pronounced dead at a hospital.

On Nov. 25, Sean Bell, 23, was at his bachelor party at a Queens topless bar when five officers fired on his car, killing him and wounding two unarmed passengers.

Community leaders have expressed outrage at the shooting, and prosecutors were weighing possible criminal charges against the officers, who were put on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of that probe.

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